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Aviation Workers Union Postpones Strike
Last weekend, Kenya Aviation Workers Union postponed planned industrial action meant to start this week, saying that it had decided “to give dialogue a chance.”
- The union’s main grievance stems from recent revelations that the government is considering a public-private partnership that would see Adani Airport Holdings run Kenya’s main airport for three decades.
- In addition to the secrecy behind the process, aviation workers are particularly alarmed by clauses that give Adani wide powers that might lead to job losses.
- The union has said that it will engage with the government and if talks fail, issue a new strike notice for early September.
The planned strike is the most apparent direct result of the revelations of the Adani proposal, which will see the subsidiary of a prominent Indian conglomerate invest $1.85bn in building a new terminal and making improvements to the existing taxiway network.
In late July, Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Managing Director Henry Ogoye had disputed claims that the deal would mean the end of job security for existing employees at the airport. While the recent postponement is good news for travellers, whose journeys would have been disrupted if airport workers downed their tools, the fact that the issue is still unresolved makes it harder to predict what direction talks will take over the next two weeks.
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Mpox is Now a Global Health Emergency
You should expect more heightened disease surveillance at ports of entry across the world, especially by land and air, as countries step up measures to contain a deadly strain of Mpox.
- Last week, the African Centers for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared mpox a public health emergency after it was detected in at least 13 countries in Africa.
- Soon after, Sweden and Pakistan reported the first cases outside the African continent, with the latter’s case being particularly interesting as the person had travelled from Saudi Arabia.
- In Kenya, which has never had any outbreaks of the virus, the ministry of health has said it has investigated at least 29 suspected cases, with 23 testing negative and six still pending.
Kenya identified its first case in late July, and although the patient has fully recovered with no evidence of spread, the country has upped surveillance both internally and at ports of entry. One complication is that while the headlines are about the current, deadly strain of mpox, some countries such as South Africa have reported cases of an older strain known as Clade Ib, that was responsible for the previous outbreak in 2022. More worryingly, many of the cases in South Africa had no history of travel to countries that have reported outbreaks.
At least three countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the epicenter of the mpox outbreak, that have not previously reported any cases have reported at least one in the past few weeks. This includes those that share a border directly with the DRC, such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. It also includes those, like Kenya, that do significant trade with the DRC.
The WHO has urged for immediate investments to accelerate vaccine distribution and access, in addition to triggering a regulatory system known as Emergency Use Listing that will allow for country’s without relevant regulatory frameworks to access the vaccines.
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Interview of the week
TKWS recently met up with AZA Finance‘s Founder & CEO Elizabeth Rossiello at their new Nairobi offices to learn more about the FX, treasury, and cross-border payments market across Africa.
Have a great week!
